A day of mourning

Driving home from a work event yesterday, I received a sad phone call from my husband. He mentioned, the crazy lady from down the street stopped by, and told him "you had a heron on top of your house yesterday." Upon hearing this comment and piece of knowledge, he said his blood pressure dropped. Dropped with a silent thud. "Don't you have a pond or something in your yard with fish?" The worst connection made possible for him. yes, the pond, with beautiful goldfish. Not the standard goldfish found in pet stores, but beautiful ranchues,butterfly tails..fancy goldfish. 

This was a sad moment, 50 fish gone. Poof! Eaten all by one, lone heron; a very, happy heron after it's visit to our yard. Immediately following this brief conversation, D mentioned he now knew why when he & J looked at the fish the night before, why none of the fish came up for food. This was sad, very, very sad. Saturday was a day of mourning, sadness, and even I felt it. D's been working with these fish for a year plus. I even admit the fish have personalities, beauty, and did capture a part of my heart. We knew herons' are problems for ponds and fish, D's been working with fish for at least 15 years...we should have known. If it can happen in NYC rooftop ponds, it can happen here in Eugene. 

Crap, there is a connection. NYC & Eugene share the statistic for bicycles stolen per capita, now we can share the heron statistic with eating fish. And in a sense we thought the raccoons were our biggest issue, and they've coooled their heels with our yard. Work began yesterday on building a net for the top....and in a few weeks he was heading to washington to pick up more fish. Timing is everything I suppose.

Song & Dance to bring a smile to your face

Noah and the Whale...just too cute to pass up. Made me smile!

Spring is here, right? At least is it around the corner??

Spring is here, well almost. The week has been a mix of rain and snow, snow and rain, hail, sunshine, and then more rain and snow! Even today working in the yard it began with rain, then sunshine, enough to warm up and peel off a layer, then late afternoon a rain/snow shower. I can't recall a time I've seen snow this close to April! The positive with the snow level so low, skiing will be good in the mountains, which I'll try and do next weekend : ) 

The garden is busy with prep for spring plantings, D has been a busy potato bug with putting together 24 buckets of potatoes! The theory- we will have a bucket to eat each week of the summer and into the fall. Now we're eating arugula, beet greens, and mustard greens now. Peas were planted prior to our trip to Tanzania and are beginning to show! We will begin to document our harvests with pictures. 

So I've recently returned from a trip to Tanzania, my first time to Africa, and right now a life changing trip. It was magical and a slice of heaven for me. I had a journal during the trip, and of course my diligence with writing daily petered out by the end of the trip. So before I forget, I will take moments during my regular work week to write a bit about the trip. Before I forget and get caught up with real life, work, and spring gardening!

10 memories of Arusha

1. Climbing 130 steps up & down at our first lodge to our cottage. By the second night, realizing my husband and I received this cottage probably because we were the youngest in the group!
   
2. The view from our cottage, mouse-birds, and hearing a preacher & music in the evenings. 
3. Visiting the Dutch rose nurseries, never would have imagined it is big business there! One green house was 3 hectares!
4. Vervet monkeys hanging out in the morning at the lodge. 
5. Victor- our nature guide. Friendly, hardworking
6. People everywhere, walking here and there; a constant flow of people. At first I wondered, "where is everyone going?!" then realizing here we're in our cars; in Arusha a majority don't have cars.
7.  Waking up at midnight to a flooded room from a rainstorm! Not bad, an inch or so and a musty smell of mud in the morning. Luckily we had for some reason, lifted items off the floor earlier in the evening!
8. Mt. Meru & Mt. Kilimanjaro
9. Going to bed by 9 p.m. and up by 6 a.m. to the sunrise and an early breakfast. 
10. Visiting David's home, meeting his wife, and eating a delicious meal!

I'm in love with a new country

Tanzania, I'm in love. 

I'm still having dreams of being in Africa and it's been three weeks since we've returned. I've begun downloading my pics on the computer, and seeing each picture, I can recall the smell, the warmth of the air, the people, and landscape. It was an amazing trip of three weeks, as I've told people, it was heaven. The most amazing portion was for a family trip of nine, we ultimately did well as a group. That is amazing in itself to be on a trip with family, and for D., two sets of in-laws! Mine and my brother-in-laws', which in a sense I might consider his parents my in-laws too. 

I need to write down my memories and thoughts on Tanzania--tonight I couldn't sleep--I began to recall the lightening bugs I saw at Lake Eyasi. Never in my life have I seen lightening bugs. They really are magical, which made me want to catch a handful and watch them glisten in the palm of my hand. I even had D try to take pictures of the lights in the grass. Later in Arusha, saw LB's in amongst the leaves of a tree, and once again I was caught sitting still, watching them flit between the branches and leaves. The thought of how magical they are to see and experience. I now envy the midwest & east coast for having lightening bugs. I wish we had them in Oregon.